Launched in 2008, SwiftKey has since become a hugely popular application by systematically predicting the next word its users will type. Unlike similar applications that make predictions based off databases of preprogrammed words, SwiftKey recognizes patters, evaluates meaning, and analyses the history of its users to provide a tailor-made suggestion on how to finish the sentence.

With the acquisition of SwiftKey, Microsoft is set to apply the machine learning technology to many of its products, to complete tasks from filling out a spreadsheet in Excel, to preparing a presentation in PowerPoint, or an email in Outlook. In a press release, Harry Shum, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of Technology and Research, wrote, “This acquisition is a great example of Microsoft’s commitment to bringing its software and services to all platforms. We’ll continue to develop SwiftKey’s market-leading keyboard apps for Android and iOS as well as explore scenarios for the integration of the core technology across the breadth of our product and services portfolio.”

Since 2010, Swiftly estimates that nearly 10 trillion keystrokes in 100 languages have saved more than 100,000 years of combined typing time by its users. This wealth of data is surely one of Microsoft’s big attractions to the product. But in the press release, Shum also wrote how, “…SwiftKey’s predictive technology aligns with Microsoft’s investments and ambition to develop intelligent systems that can work more on the user’s behalf and under their control.” That is, this is just the newest weapon in what Microsoft hopes will be an impressive AI arsenal.

Microsoft researchers at the company's New York-based lab are using Minecraft to teach an AI agent how to learn. While there's been much progress in teaching AI to perform narrow tasks - such as translation or computer vision, often at levels that surpass that of adult humans - agents still lack more general intelligence, the type of contextual and instinctual intelligence that allows humans to make the slew of varied decisions in our everyday realities. The research project is based on the AIX platform, developed by a team at Microsoft's Cambridge, UK lab and revealed to the public on Monday. Minecraft is an ideal virtual world in which to try and teach an AI agent more general intelligence, due to the myriad of tasks and decisions that can be made in the game; actions in the game are associated with real consequences, but don't impact those infrastructures that humans depend on for work and communication. The platform is strictly designed for researchers and is not open to the public.

A few weeks ago, Chinese software company Baidu released key parts of a key artificial intelligence/ speech recognition algorithm into the realm of open source, following in the footsteps of Facebook and Google last year.

If you aren’t yet convinced by the real world potential of artificial intelligence, Microsoft’s chief envisioning officer, Dave Coplin has a few words for you. Speaking at an AI conference in London on Tuesday, Coplin emphatically told business leaders that AI is “the most important technology that anybody on the planet is working on today,” reports Business Insider.

A few weeks ago, Chinese software company Baidu released key parts of a key artificial intelligence/ speech recognition algorithm into the realm of open source, following in the footsteps of Facebook and Google last year.

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